With so many things to pull our attention these days, it can be hard to know what to focus on. I personally struggle on a daily basis as to how to prioritize my tasks. I’m not just talking about our to-do lists though. Our attitude and mindset can make a huge difference in how our day goes. I know I can easily get bogged down by the sense of overwhelm and start to panic… and then behave poorly.
Lately, Whitney has been struggling with keeping her cool during certain situations. Mainly in the context of not waking up on time for school… or having to wait for a ride after school. We’ve all been there, sleeping through our alarm, or hitting the snooze button one too many times. I remember having similar reactions to hers when I was around her age. Blaming my mom for not getting me up, yelling and slamming things. Not the most mature way to behave.
She’s a teenager, so I’ll give her a little leeway. But after a few times of this happening and no signs of improvement, I feel like I need to rein her in.
Case in point, last night, around 8 p.m. she came downstairs and said she was tired. She said she was going to go to bed but was still up an hour later. By the time I said goodnight to her it was after 9:30. Still plenty of time for her to get a good night’s sleep, if she were to get up at 6:30 or 7 a.m.
My alarm went off at 7:28 this morning. I purposely put my phone on our dresser so I am forced to get out of bed to turn it off. After using our washroom, I could see that Whitney’s light was on in her room. But I couldn’t hear any movement, so thought I’d check on her. Sure enough, her lights were on but she was still in bed, roused from my opening her door. When she finally realized what time it was, after I’d made my way downstairs, she decided to come down and make a scene by bawling and then screaming her head off, waking up her siblings and deafening our kitties in the process.
She was acting like it was the end of the world because she only had a half hour before she had to leave. In reality, she still had nearly an hour to get ready. School, for her, this year doesn’t start until 8:50. Granted it does take a bit longer to walk there – 15 to 20 minutes as opposed to 5 minutes for her siblings – so she needed to leave by 8:20-25 to get there with a bit of time to spare. That was, of course, if she were to walk.
Since it snowed all day yesterday, Matt didn’t really want to drive her. Our car has not yet been outfitted with snow tires – something we said we would be definitely be doing this year after this snowstorm – so it makes for a bit of a hairy drive. Whitney also didn’t really want to walk, although she had said she would.
In the end, Matt did end up driving her to school, but there was a lot of unnecessary yelling and grumpiness beforehand. Really, if Whitney and I had paused to take a breath, or several deep ones, we could have avoided a lot of drama. She would have realized that she still had time to get dressed, do her makeup, make her lunch, eat something and get to school on time. Instead, she was focused on being angry and spent the time she had at home furiously getting ready.
I have a feeling she was just as mad at herself, but to an outsider it would look like she was just mad at the rest of us. Or mostly me.
Or maybe that’s just what I chose to focus on. Feelings of guilt and shame and being blamed, even though we had talked about her being in charge of her lunches and getting to school on her own this year.
At any rate, by the time she came home from school this afternoon – walking on her own – her mood was better. And she came with me to the vets because one of our kitty boys and my favourite – Sweet Chili Heat – had been vomiting off and on all day.
After some x-rays were taken, our vet showed us that there looked to be something foreign inside. We’re not sure what it is… my guess is a pipe cleaner based on the x-ray. But I was also worried that he ingested some ice melt when it got brought it on some snow yesterday. I’ll be checking his poop in the next 24 hours and will hopefully be able to determine the cause. Sweet Chili Heat is on the mend after being given various meds.
This is the kittens’ first winter and will be their first Christmas too. Apparently there are always more visits to the vet after Christmas because kitties get into a lot of stuff they shouldn’t. We have yet to put our tree, but we will definitely be thinking of ways to kitty-proof it!
